KIA Beirut Bombing October 23, 1983 29th year Anniversary The Beirut Bombing occurred on October 23, 1983. The act was a terrorist attack against the United States Marine Headquarters during the Lebanese Civil War. A yellow Mercedes delivery truck, its engine revving, crashed through several fences, then slammed into the headquarters lobby. Once in the lobby, the smiling driver, a Shiite Muslim suicide bomber, encountered unarmed Marines and detonated his truck with 12,000 pounds of TNT, creating the largest non-nuclear explosion ever seen by the FBI. The bomb's force leveled the four-story, cinder-block building, killing nearly 300 people. A few months later, President Ronald Reagan ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops, who had been stationed in Lebanon to provide stability during the civil war between Muslims and Christians.

US Marine Corporal James J. Jackowski was a resident of South Salem, NY and graduate of John Jay HS was KIA at the Beirut Bombing http://www.beirut-memorial.org/